October is the season for ghosts, goblins, haunted houses, and things that go bump in the night. But for real estate lawyers and title professionals, there may be something even scarier hiding in a closing file: a fraudulent survey. And unfortunately, this one is not wearing a costume.
An emerging form of real estate fraud involves property surveys that have been fraudulently altered or, in some instances, completely fabricated. With today’s sophisticated graphic-editing software and artificial intelligence tools, changing a document has become frighteningly easy. Even worse, the finished product can look remarkably authentic. That means the survey sitting in your closing file may not always be what it appears to be.
A Survey With a Few Tricks
Fraud-prevention reports have described schemes in which existing surveys were allegedly manipulated to conceal or misrepresent conditions affecting property. Examples have included an existing survey allegedly altered to remove an improvement, as well as a fabricated survey allegedly omitting structures encroaching into an easement.
Now you see it. Now you don’t. These are not harmless edits. A survey can play an important role in identifying or evaluating boundaries, improvements, easements, encroachments, and other physical matters that may affect the title to or use of the property.
But remember that the survey and title examination serve different functions. A clean-looking survey does not eliminate matters disclosed by the public record, and a survey should not be treated as a substitute for a proper title examination. When the survey, legal description, recorded documents, and conditions on the ground do not seem to tell the same story, that discrepancy deserves further investigation.
Look for the Survey’s Skeletons
Unfortunately, there may not be one obvious clue that a survey has been manipulated. Still, a few red flags should cause you to take a closer look:
- Inconsistent fonts, text sizes, spacing, or formatting.
- Letters or numbers that appear to float, lean, or otherwise differ from surrounding text.
- Smudges, unusually faint lines, white areas, or other indications that information may have been removed or replaced.
- A surveyor’s signature or seal that appears misaligned, copied and pasted, or visually disconnected from the document.
- Differences between the property’s legal description and what is depicted on the survey.
- A recorded easement or other matter revealed by the title examination that an apparent current survey unexpectedly fails to depict or reference.
- Electronic file creation or modification dates that do not reasonably correspond with the purported date of the survey or revision.
None of these things, standing alone, necessarily proves fraud. Documents are frequently scanned, copied, downloaded, combined, and converted into different electronic formats. Unusual metadata or formatting should therefore be treated as a reason to ask questions, not proof that a survey has been fraudulently altered.
Don’t Be Haunted by a Fake Survey
Fortunately, one of the best defenses against survey fraud is surprisingly low-tech: independent verification. Whenever practicable, obtain the survey directly from the licensed surveyor or independently confirm with the surveyor that the version provided for the transaction is authentic. If a survey comes from the seller, buyer, real estate agent, or another third party, consider independently identifying and contacting the surveyor to verify the document.
And here is an important point: do not rely exclusively on the phone number or email address printed on a questionable survey. If someone has gone to the trouble of fabricating a survey, creating fraudulent contact information is not much of a leap. Independently locating the surveyor’s legitimate contact information provides an additional safeguard.
The Same Old Fraud Lesson, Wearing a New Costume
Title professionals have already learned an important lesson from years of combating wire fraud and other real estate scams: trust but verify. The same principle applies here.
Technology continues to make document manipulation easier and more convincing. That does not mean every imperfect-looking survey should send the closing attorney running from the building like the last scene of a horror movie. It does mean we should resist accepting a document at face value when something does not look right. Fraudsters may have some new tricks.
Our best treat remains the same: slow down, ask questions, compare the survey with the title evidence, and independently verify before relying on the document. Because when it comes to property surveys, the scariest problems may be the ones somebody has carefully erased.
